Institute for Public Affairs2010-03-18T19:59:35+00:00ExpressionEngineCopyright (c) 2010, IPAObama-Bibi Beer Summit?tag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.674592010-03-18T17:48:34+00:002010-03-18T19:59:35+00:002010-03-18T17:48:34+00:00
Due to the high-stakes state of the healthcare reform debate, The White House just announced that next week's trip by Pres. Obama to Indonesia has been canceled.
While the critical domestic policy issue will be the President's focus, the ongoing foreign policy crisis with Israel remains, as yet, unresolved.
While in Israel last week (where this all started), Vice President Biden said (in the course of his q&a with Tel Aviv U. students) that "foreign policy is the extension of interpersonal relations" between nations' leaders and peoples.
-- ]]>BOAST passes Maryland Senatetag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.674012010-03-17T15:26:35+00:002010-03-18T13:32:36+00:002010-03-17T15:26:35+00:00
In a 30-17 vote, the BOAST education tax credit, legislation the OU has championed since its inception, passed the Maryland Senate earlier today.
The action now moves to the House, where BOAST is heard today in the Committee on Ways & Means. The OU has submitted testimony and is on hand for the hearing.
-- ]]>Op-Ed: Saying No to People of Good Faithtag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.673802010-03-17T13:59:14+00:002010-03-17T15:06:15+00:00Op-Ed by OU Director of Public Policy Nathan J. Diament about discrimination against faith-driven organizations.2010-03-17T13:59:14+00:00
Nathan J. Diament, the OU's Director of Public Policy, pens an op-ed published by The Hill:
Now that President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships has completed its first year of work and issued its final recommendations, we commend the President for resisting those extreme voices who call on him to discriminate against faith-driven organizations serving the poor here and abroad.
Yet, in the midst of a global recession affecting billions here and around the globe, some seem intent on showing the door to these dedicated humanitarians.
Faith-based charities have a proven, decades-long track record of effectiveness while serving the poor, the sick, the elderly and children-at-risk in America and throughout the world. Last month, USAID awarded more than $50 million to several faith-based agencies, including Catholic Relief Services, Samaritan’s Purse and World Vision, for their long-term and dedicated efforts in rebuilding earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Yet, there is a vocal minority of advocates in the United States attempting to remove all federal support from faith-based groups unless they surrender what essentially makes them who they are: their faith.
Read the op-ed in its entirety here.]]>Now Who’s Provoking a Crisis? What Will the US Say?tag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.672772010-03-14T15:24:16+00:002010-03-14T16:36:17+00:002010-03-14T15:24:16+00:00
Ahead of this week's rededication of the restored Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Palestinian leadership is inciting their people and denouncing this milestone event as a "provocation."
This is obscene. The Hurva (literally - "ruined") Synagogue was ruined by Arabs destroying the place of worship when they last controlled the holy city.
If the Obama Administration is pressing Israel these days over an untimely, but at bottom bureaucratic, step toward construction in Jerusalem, they must press the Palestinians harder over inciting their people with an inflammatory, but false, threat to their mosque on the Temple Mount. This is a present call to violence and danger.
We look to see reports of Secretary Clinton telephoning PA President Abbas to discuss this matter.
-- ]]>Biden/Bibi Fallout…“How Did it Happen” & More…tag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.672732010-03-14T00:33:53+00:002010-03-14T04:17:54+00:002010-03-14T00:33:53+00:00
Today's newspapers all carry stories reporting on a lengthy Friday phone conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (at the direction of President Obama) and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, stemming from the Israeli Interior Ministry's approval of 1600 housing units in Jerusalem during Vice President Biden's visit to Israel.
"The announcement of the settlements on the very day that the vice president was there was insulting," Clinton told CNN on Friday, and today's reports speak of Sec'y Clinton telling the Prime Minister that the events of last week undermined Israel's "relationship with the United States" itself.
Such harsh, public language of rebuke has earned the Obama Administration its own rebuke from the ADL.
It is worth noting that the reports of distress in the US administration are in part based upon officials wondering, in the words of the State Dept. spokesman: "secretary [Clinton] said [to PM Netanyahu] she could not understand how this happened,"
Not to necessarily excuse the Israeli action, but to at least explain it in terms the Obama Administration should understand, we would point to an analogous experience of their own.
Last year, the gay community in the US was enraged at the Obama White House because the Department of Justice filed a legal brief in federal court defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (which mandates that as far as federal laws are concerned, only man/woman marriages are treated as marriages).
While the Obama White House did not exactly plead ignorance, they did punt the rationale over to the DOJ - suggesting they really were not on top of this matter.
The point is, in large government bureaucracies, decisions get made that the political leadership does not sign off on. If that can happen in the US, it can certainly happen in Israel - where crazy coalition politics (with cabinet ministers of different parties, angling for advantage over the Prime Minister) is overlaid on top of all this.
Later reports today indicate PM Netanyahu is trying to mend fences with the US.
It remains the case that the Vice President still delivered a forceful "pro-Israel" speech and, with nurturing, the relationship should get back on track.
The President and Secy of State seem determined to leverage PM Netanyahu's regret over what happened into "progress" (as they see it) on peace negotiations. Politics, or diplomacy, "ain't beanbag," but the Adminstration best be careful to not overpress the moment....as we are seeing signs of concern.
-- ]]>Biden’s Big Speechtag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.671862010-03-11T14:05:51+00:002010-03-11T16:01:52+00:002010-03-11T14:05:51+00:00
In the wake of the events earlier this week coinciding with Vice President Biden’s visit to Israel, one had to wonder whether his centerpiece speech to the Israeli public this morning would be radically altered, or just tweaked.
After delivery, it seems it was more the latter.
VP Biden flatly stated that the United States has no better friend than Israel and flatly stated, as he did earlier this week to Chris Matthews, that "the U.S. is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Period."
The Jerusalem Post’s David Horovitz correctly notes that the VP “touched on all the issues that matter most to us. Unlike President Obama in Cairo last June, Biden did take the few moments to note the historic ties between the Jewish people and this land. He insisted that the US was 'determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Period.' He empathized with Israelis’ shaken faith in the prospect of peace given the violence that had followed us across the border when we pulled out of Lebanon and Gaza. And he reiterated that, for all the bumps and tensions, the US-Israeli bond was fundamentally 'impervious to any shifts.'”
It is also worth noting the Vice President’s emphatic statement earlier in the week (and not at all diluted after the Ramat Shlomo contretemps) that “There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security."
All in all, this was an important visit and, even with (or maybe because of?) the difficulties that occurred while the Vice President was on the ground, it may well have achieved its central purpose of re-assuring Israelis at large of the strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship and also the need to nurture it consistently and not take it for granted.
-- ]]>Meeting with the President on Faithtag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.671352010-03-09T21:13:46+00:002010-03-10T17:14:47+00:002010-03-09T21:13:46+00:00
Today, the OU’s Nathan Diament joined with the full complement of members of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to present its recommendations for Administration policies and initiatives to senior officials, including the President.
Over the course of the day, the Council presented its recommendations in key policy areas to senior officials who deal with each of those areas, including:
Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, USAID Director Raj Shah, White House Domestics Policy Director Melody Barnes, National Security Council Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and EPA Director Lisa Jackson.
The group concluded the day in a meeting with President Obama who appreciated the Council members’ service and hard work in forging common ground across religious, political and philosophical lines. The President also indicated his strong intention to follow through on and implement many of the Council’s recommendations.
-- ]]>Key Week in Israel; Biden Lands Todaytag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.669772010-03-08T16:00:34+00:002010-03-08T17:07:35+00:002010-03-08T16:00:34+00:00
As previously noted, Vice President Joe Biden is visiting Israel this week.
Israelis and Palestinians seem to be prepared to greet the Veep with the gift of starting “proximity talks”, which are intended to lead into direct peace negotiations.
Of course, always ready to put forward the specter of terrorism, the Palestinians are threatening that this is the “last chance” for peace, while Israelis are just plain skeptical.
The key event to watch this week is Vice President Biden’s speech at Tel Aviv University, which The White House has titled: “The Enduring Partnership between the United States and Israel.”
-- ]]>Shutting Down a Church in Dallastag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.668222010-03-04T19:21:30+00:002010-03-04T20:26:31+00:002010-03-04T19:21:30+00:00
The Dallas Housing Authority is asserting a view on church-state separation that even the most extreme church-state separationists don’t agree with.
The Dallas Morning News reports that the DHA has ordered an end to a church worship service in a public housing facility on the grounds that because the housing is publicly funded it can’t be a place where the residents exercise their religious freedom. A federal HUD spokesman has already indicated that this is an inaccurate reading of federal law.
We hope and urge that this misunderstanding of what the Constitution demands is corrected immediately.
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]]>MD Governor O’Malley on BOAST Tax Credittag:ouradio.org,2010:/33.667902010-03-04T16:51:21+00:002010-03-04T18:00:22+00:002010-03-04T16:51:21+00:00
In a letter to the Maryland Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley expresses his support for the proposed BOAST tax credits and urges the Senate to pass the bill without delay so the tax credit can be implemented this year.